my journey through my words and my lens

Unraveling the New Land

When I see myself in the mirror, I noticed several things different from my reflection than when I was in Jakarta – both physical and mental reflection. I am getting tanner than before, getting messier and – I don’t know if it’s true or not – getting fatter. Well, all in all, I’ve gained so many things that I won’t be able to get if I stay in Jakarta.

***

The humming sound of the fan is accompanying me, along with two buyers from People’s Republic of China. At night, there is not much to do around this place. Getting in touch with outside world would seem to be the modest yet the right choice to do at night like this.

Seven days have passed. I’ve tasted new flavors of life offered by this island. In this mining site, I am pushed to the edge of my guts where I did things that I don’t normally do in normal circumstances. I also confirm three things that are not my strong suits here – balance, height and water. However, I dared myself to conquer those three things.

Balance

Working in mining sites, it means that I have to follow the safety regulations applied – wearing boots, helmet, and bright color vest. It also means that I have to walk in not-paved-paths. Often, I have to climb pile of soil which is very unstable. Once, my boots were stuck in a very muddy soil and I lost my balance. The result? I successfully printed the shape of my palm in the mud. Yuck!

Yeah, this is the crime scene where I print my hands gloriously. Good God, damn hot day like this is something to be grateful for if you work in this kind of field.At the very least, the boots help me a lot here

And then last Sunday afternoon, the workers at the site offered me to enjoy the beautiful scenery from Pantai Pancur – which is located down at the beach – and for sure, I agreed to that. How can one resist taking pleasure in wonderful nature? However, the thing that I didn’t know is the path we have to take to get there. It was CRAZY! We had to get down a very steep hill with trees surrounding us. I slipped down twice – which was not really nice to look at. But the effort was worth given. Pantai Pancur is indeed a pristine beach with its white sand and turquoise water. But without any mean to reduce the good memory of Pantai Pancur, the way back was as awful as the way down. I had to take off my slippers in order to climb the hill better. If people who know me well enough, they’ll probably doubt my decision to get dirty like that.

Pantai Pancur - The pristine beach in Malamala Island

Water

I’ve learned how to swim, but haven’t managed to be able to say that I can swim – and without question, I am ashamed of this. Moreover, I have this paranoia side where – in most cases – I consider the probability of bad things happen in a bigger portion. So, when I got to the beach, those guys asked me to get down and swim, and I felt really nervous at that time! Luckily, it is only 1.5-meter depth so I didn’t have problem standing in the water.

Can you see the people standing there? That shallow. The mother vessel near the beach - If it gets any closer, the water will be polluted by trashes and such

Working with vessels will certainly be associated with water – that is inevitable. And to add more experience while I am here, I accepted the offer to get the mother vessel. At first, I didn’t realize that I have to climb up to get to the dock of the mother vessel. When we finally approached the huge vessel, suddenly my allergy to height rushed through my blood. Gosh!

The mother vessel

“Gosh, do I need to climb the rope ladder to get there? Just like what I see on movies?”

AARGH!!!

That was a scary thought! I imagine the two things that would haunt me – height and water. But fortunately, there is this mechanical ladder made of steel that was lowered down when we got the confirmation from the captain to be onboard.

Height

Well, my concern about height has been partly discussed above, but for sure there were other circumstances where I have to deal with height as well. When I climbed up the stock pile – or when I went to monitor the mining site, height is pretty much involved there. But, until this very day, I have gone through that.

The stock pile - sometimes, it can go as tall as 3-metre

***

Therefore, I am really glad to be given this opportunity to come here and learn so many things. Not only new knowledge about mining and new places to roam, but I also learn about conquering my paranoid personality (though I’m pretty sure that I still have it). I also believe that this experience will prepare and equip me better in the future – for whatever good things that will come knocking my door.

I guess that’s all for today. I have this feeling that I will soon go back to Jakarta.

Au revoir!

And oh, these are extra pictures that I don’t know where to put in above paragraphs which I think worth sharing.

Pasir Putih PortPasir Putih PortLeaving Malamala behind - On my way to Haulsagu IslandAaah, the blue sky and water - What a beautiful scenery!

Thank you. It was slippery and I fell once. Thank God I wasn’t holding my camera (or anything in that case) because my hands were all covered in mud. But, it was worth falling to gain those experiences 😀